Monday, March 02, 2009

Been in a movie theater all alone? It's totally spooky. Last time that happened to me was during The Descent. So yeah. Extra scary. This time only generically creepy sine the movie is Confessions of a Shopaholic.

42 comments:

Cory Rivard
said...

For Valentine's day this year my girlfriend blindfolded and i-poded me, drove me to the mall, walked me through said mall, and sat me down to reveal that she had rented out the Imax for us to sit alone and watch 'The Fountain' in. It was the best experience of my life.

I saw The Reader last monday (the day after the big win) it was the first showing of the day and I was the only one there. I also remember my mother taking my sister and I to see something when were little that did not hold our attention at all, and because it was just the three of us in the theater my sister and I ran all over the place.

Last January I was the only one in the theater for a Superbowl Sunday night screening of Youth Without Youth. It was a huge theater at the back of the building and I could hear something - animals, bums, who knows - clattering around just outside the emergency exits throughout. It was quite creepy. Especially when the projectionist fell asleep and forgot to put on the last reel of the movie, leaving me alone, in complete darkness, with just the sound of whatever it was outside. I have not been back to that theater since.

It has happened a couple of times.First with the documentary about Joe Strummer and then just over a year ago with Things we lost in the fire.It's quite a strange feeling being the only one in the cinema screen,especially when you can't hear anything else going on outside.

My wife and I (we always go the cinema together, so I'll count that as alone) saw a 10PM showing of "Mystic River" and were completely alone until about an hour in when three boys, maybe 10 to 12 years old, came in. I have no idea why or how they got in there, but they stayed until the end.

The only time we were alone was during an early afternoon showing of "Capote." It was very surreal because we would still whisper to each other despite the fact that no one would be bothered by our talking.

I've had that happen to me a few times. Once with a movie that had just come out, but I guess no one else wanted to see it on a Tuesday night, when I saw Meet Bill. I thought that Aaron Eckhart had more of a fanbase than that, but apparently maybe it only consists of one person where I live.

The other movies were movies that had been out for awhile, weren't that good, actually one was one of the worst movies I've actually paid to see, and since I have to work on Friday and Saturday nights, I usually go during non peak hours.

My wife and I (we always go the cinema together, so I'll count that as alone) saw a 10PM showing of "Mystic River" and were completely alone until about an hour in when three boys, maybe 10 to 12 years old, came in. I have no idea why or how they got in there, but they stayed until the end.

I forget what movie it was, but I thought I was the only one in the movie theater because I didn't see anyone went I arrived, and I didn't see anyone come in after I arrived at least while the lights were still on. When the lights came back on there were suddenly people sitting with me. Not a lot, but probably 10 to 15 which made me wonder how I could miss that many people coming in even when it was dark in the theater. In a way, I think that creeped me out more than being in a theater all alone which I actually like sometimes because I can stretch out and not have to put up with people adding their own soundtrack, because it felt like they were pod people that just sprung out of nowhere.

Also, I've had the experience where there haven't been many people in the theater, probably no more than 20, and have half them be gone by the time the movie was over. It was with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas which I can sort of see why some people would be turned off by it, but I didn't expect so many walk outs since I figured they knew what they were getting into.

Last time it happened for me was with Danny Boyle's Sunshine... It's pretty sad that from now on he is probably not going to make more movies like that, not because Sunshine was that good (it wasn't, it was just OK), but you know, sometimes you do appreciate this kind of movies and endings... As I said, I was totally alone in Sunshine in the opening day in Israel.

Crazy, sad, and also frightening since I'm a very "piss in the pants" person, I get scared with anything, and being alone in a big movie theater with a movie like "that" (the movie had scary twists ¬¬), well, it was a bad experience.

I was in 2000 in a theatre of Havana, Cuba, when I saw all alone Almodovar's All About My Mother (for the seventh time then). I was in a theatre with 1'700 locations and I was completely alone. Definitely a wonderful experience.

It seems like certain kinds of kids movies don't get a very large audience. We were alone in the theatre for "My Dog Skip" and the NYC Ballet filmed version of "The Nutcracker". With "Skip" we could cry in peace,and with "Nutcracker" there was a whole theatre to dance along in.

The last movie I was alone in was "Pride and Glory" with Edward Norton. Pity, because that was a decent movie with excellent acting.

The second time I saw Mamma Mia, the only people in the theater were myself and my two friends, which is pretty much the perfect way to watch that movie; we ran around the aisles and sang during "Dancing Queen." And yes, I saw Mamma Mia twice, though I was pretty drunk both times.

I've come close a few times in my life (one other person) but a couple years ago I finally hit the big one. It was a Monday afternoon. Me, myself and I saw the musical Hairspray all by our lonesome. And it was pretty lonely. :-( I should have asked one of the ticket takers or the person at the concession stand to sit in the theater with me.

I was alone when I saw Flight of the Red Balloon, and it didn't make that much of a difference to me because that movie was kind of....low-energy. Not in a bad way, per se, although it wasn't my favorite. I would have preferred to be all by myself in a musical or something where I could go ooooh and sing along and be dorky. (Trey, you are so lucky!! I would have taken full advantage of being alone seeing Mamma Mia....although I kind of did anyway and our theater was full. my friend and I sang and harmonized.) Anyway, it also would have been more exciting if the theater had been bigger. So I'm looking forward to having the experience again.

I've seen a couple movies where my friend and I were the only 2 people in the theater ("Better Luck Tomorrow," "The Real Cancun"), the only time I've been the single lone person in the theater, was the opening day matinee of "Marci X."

I was alone for the first few minutes of Death Proof (on opening weekend, no less) but two guys came in. Same goes for Kokoda, except that was about five weeks into it's season so it's a bit more understandable.

Never been entirely alone though. It's been me and a friend and nobody else, but never just me.

I've been alone three or four times, and I kind of dig it, to be perfectly honest, especially since none of the times were for a movie where the audience reaction would have really added much (comedies, horror). The first one was Festival Express; I very clearly remember singing along. It is just like being in your living room, but with a giant TV and infinitely better sound system. Honestly, I'd kind of like to see more films that way.

I had never been the only one even though I love going to the theater by myself (I CANNOT talk to anyone during a movie) to early showings. But my niece and I went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic (like you!) this past Saturday, and we were the only ones.

This happened to me twice, once for The Darjeeling Limited, which allowed to be practice my film snob voice, and another for a one-night showing of Lupin the Third: Castle of Cagliostro. I guess if it ain't got samurai for gothy kid writting death warrents in notebooks, it ain't worth shit.

It really is a bizare feeling at first but then as the movie starts it's great because it feels like it's your own theatre :D I have experienced it a couple of times. The latest was with Hellboy II one of the last days it was showing at my local cinema.

My first time was Miami Vice and I can't remember why I did in the first place. I kept looking around the theater cos i've never done it before and the theater was about 5% filled. 2nd and last was Step Up 2 and I cried few times when people in the cinema laughed cause I was mourning, I think that was the reason i went.